Miliband pushes developers to build more wind and solar farms in the South

Ed Miliband wants to overhaul energy market rules to encourage developers to build more wind and solar farms in the South of England.

The Energy Secretary plans to cut so-called transmission charges for southern renewable developers to incentivise them to build more wind and solar near England’s power-hungry cities.

At the same time, he has proposed increasing rates for developers in northern areas or offshore to discourage them from building in these remote locations.

The proposals could boost low carbon energy in the South but see a rash of solar farms and wind turbines in formerly rural areas.

It comes after Mr Miliband scrapped controversial plans to break-up the country’s electricity market.

So-called zonal pricing would have achieved the same goal by pushing up energy bills for southern consumers and businesses, while lowering them in the North. It was scrapped on Thursday after Mr Miliband deemed it too complex and risky.

It means the UK will retain its national wholesale power market and prices, with electricity generators facing extra transmission costs. Those costs will still end up on consumer bills but will be buried in the network charges, making them all but invisible.

The new approach aims to tackle the failings of successive governments in planning the UK’s transition to low carbon energy.

The key blunder has been the construction of huge windfarms across remote areas of Scotland and offshore without also expanding the transmission grid to carry their power. It means they are being paid huge sums to lay idle – £700m so far this year alone.

‘Historic failure’

A report from Mr Miliband described this as a “historic failure” adding: “One of the main challenges is the misalignment between where our energy is generated and the availability of transmission networks to get the power to consumers.

“This mismatch in siting has resulted in significant inefficiencies in the form of rising network constraints and balancing costs.”

Under Mr Miliband’s plan, the transmission charges paid by generators will be increasingly linked to the distance from demand centres such as London.